Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (LGF)’s Stock Price Appreciated On Spin-Off Announcement

Investment management company Cove Street Capital recently released its “Small Cap Value Fund” second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. At the end of the second quarter, the fund returned -13.70% compared to -17.20% for the Russell 2000 Index and -15.28% for the Russell 2000 Value Index. In addition, you can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2022.

In the second quarter investor letter, Cove Street Capital discussed stocks like Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B). Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B) is an entertainment company that engages in film, television, and subscription business. On August 26, 2022, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B) stock closed at $9.65 per share. One-month return of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B) rose to 16.13%, and its shares lost 17.80% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B) has a market capitalization of $2.246 billion.

Here is what Cove Street Capital specifically said about Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B):

“Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B): is in the process of splitting itself into Starz and the legacy studio business, essentially undoing the merger that happened in 2017. Upon the announcement of the potential sale or spin-off of Starz, the stock appreciated meaningfully. There had been a definitive perception that the management team at Lions Gate was not interested in creating value for shareholders and would never sell the whole company or any of its pieces. That change in narrative was helpful right until Netflix announced its Q1 2022 earnings, which basically sank the entire video streaming industry. The first concern was about Netflix’s inability to grow domestic subs. The other take-away was that Netflix would cut back on its content spending. Despite the fact that Lions Gate sells very little of its content to Netflix, the market became worried that the studios, like Lions Gate, which are essentially arms dealers to other platforms, were going to see a precipitous drop in demand. The stock price has dropped to a level that is currently a fraction of our conservative estimate of intrinsic value, and management has suggested that a deal for Starz may be completed by the first quarter of calendar 2023. Vivendi, Roku (Ticker: ROKU), Apollo (Ticker: APO) and DirecTV (Ticker: DTV) have been rumored to be interested in acquiring a portion of Starz. But, regardless of the buyer our research suggests that a deal will likely create value for shareholders, especially relative to the currently depressed share price. As we wait, it has been quite heartening to see director Gordon Crawford continue to buy hundreds of thousands of shares in the open market.”

Copyright: adrianhancu / 123RF Stock Photo

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B) is not on the list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B) was held by 21 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the second quarter compared to 21 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE:LGF-B) in another article and shared Sterling Partners Equity Advisors’ views on the company. You can check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other prominent investors.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.